Daily Bullion Market Update 6/10/11

GOLD
A combination of a sharp increase in the value of the U.S. Dollar (versus the Euro) and a sizeable drop in the value of Crude Oil led to an $8.30 correction in Gold price today, closing at $1,534 per ounce. The U.S. Dow Jones industrial average was also down 150 points today on that same news, amid concerns of all the negative economic news that has hit the market in the past month. In the face of all this negativity, the Gold Market rallied off the bottom and ended the day down less than 1% (0.62%). The range today was $1,525 to $1,542.60, which was amazingly strong.

Today, Saudi Arabia indicated that it might act unilaterally to increase crude oil supplies after OPEC failed to agree to increase oil production earlier this week. The oil giant began offering more crude to Asian refiners, easing worries about supply. U.S. crude oil future prices fell by $2.65 to $99.28 a barrel. Al-Hayat newspaper said today that Saudi Arabia will also boost production in July, to 10 million barrels per day.

SILVER

Silver closed at $36.45 today, down $1.03 on average volume trading. Silver at this price is definitely near the low end of the trading range and an excellent value. Plus, in the past month silver looks like it has settled into a 40/1 Silver/Gold ratio. As we enter the summer months, the U.S. Mint is catching up with production and the premium on Silver Eagles is finally coming down. Actually, premiums on investment quality .999 Silver trade units, and pre-1933 U.S. Silver Dollars have also come down. Lower premiums are not idicative of market direction, just of slower trading, which is very common in the summer months.

Today’s Other Important News:

China’s politically sensitive monthly global trade surplus widened to $13 billion. This is about the same level as a year ago and the highest level this year, and an increase over April’s $11.4 billion. China’s import of copper dropped 3% in May.

The U.S. Imports rose 0.2% in May, a surprise increase but the smallest gain of the year, the Labor Department reported Friday. Economists polled by Market Watch were looking for a 0.6% drop following the revised 2.1% monthly growth in April. Import prices have gained at least 1% each month since October and have not declined since June 2010. Higher industrial supplies and materials, along with finished goods prices, offset a 0.2% dip for fuel, which was the first monthly decline since Sept. 2010. Prices for overall imports advanced 12.5% over the past year, the largest 12-month increase since Sept. 2008